SharePoint Upgrade: Why Every Business Should Upgrade

SharePoint Upgrade: Why Every Business Should Upgrade

Your clients always come first in your business. But how about your employees who help retain the customers? Do you cater to their needs accordingly? Do they use the latest technologies when serving your customers? Employees serve clients better when they have the necessary resources and the latest technologies. 

Your Sharepoint is crucial in improving your team member's productivity and communication. However, it's essential to keep it up to date to enjoy its beneficial features and services. An outdated version can see you fail to recover your ROI, and your clients may not receive quality services from your employees.
 
Here are the reasons why every business should upgrade its SharePoint:

1. You'll Save Money Spent On Additional Platforms

An outdated platform may not have your employees' capabilities to conduct their jobs well-this means you have to pay for a platform with the powers your platform lacks. For example, if your current Sharepoint version doesn't have a messaging capability, you'd have to pay for a platform with the stuff, such as Zoho Cliq; this will have your employees navigate between several applications, which compromises their productivity. You will incur additional costs, which affect the ROI in the long run. An upgraded Sharepoint has more features, including messaging capabilities, saving money, and boosting employees' productivity.

2. More Functionality For Your Team

Outdated Sharepoint versions lack some functionalities essential to improving how your employees work. They are also full of bugs, load slowly, and are messy. Their complex usage can also lead to low adoption rates. A modern Sharepoint is easy to use, offers collaboration opportunities, and supports team member workflows. It also has advanced organizational tools that enable users to file documents easily. The collaboration features like rating, liking, and commenting help users connect better. Your team will likely desist from using your platform if it doesn't have the necessary features to execute its tasks efficiently.

3. You Are Assured Of Data Security

Earlier versions of Sharepoint intranet are not equipped with modern security systems that protect your data. Relying on an outdated platform puts your company's information at risk of data breaches, such as cyber-attacks. A ransomware attack would require you to pay a sum your organization may not be able to raise; this can lead to delays and downtime in providing services to your clients or even losing them to your competitors. An upgraded Sharepoint version's security is improved, ensuring your data is safe from external attacks. You don't need to worry about your confidential information because no one can access it without your permission.

4. Timely Insights And Information

Identifying an error or resolving a process using an outdated platform is challenging; it is difficult to fix an issue because you'd need to go through every procedure individually. It would be time-consuming, and you may eventually not locate the problem's source. 
An upgraded Sharepoint has inbuilt systems that provide data insights and reporting metrics that assist business leaders in making informed decisions. It also has error identification and resolution processes, ensuring issues are fixed on time.

5. Mobile Usage

Sharepoint is not accessible on mobile phones in older versions, leading to employees declining to use the platform. High mobile phone adoption rates mean your employees can use the platform from a mobile device whenever they are not close to their desktops. They can reply to a message, like a comment, or give feedback on a particular matter. Newer versions of Sharepoint support mobile usage, boosting your employees' productivity and enhancing collaboration.

What are SharePoint's Upgrade Best Practices?

1. Conduct A Pre-Upgrade Check

The first step is checking the status of your Sharepoint servers and sites. A pre-upgrade check can help detect potential issues present before the upgrade. Upon detecting any problems, the server administrator can fix them immediately.

2. Conduct A Trial Upgrade

Conducting a trial upgrade involves copying your databases to a test environment. You should closely check how the upgraded sites look, the time taken in the test upgrade process, and whether the service application data was upgraded as expected.

3. Plan For The Storage Required

You should ensure your storage can handle the entire upgrade process. Commencing the upgrade without enough disk, memory capacity, or processor can cause an upgrade failure. You can also waste a lot of time when you start looking for the necessary storage equipment, which is not found easily or in one place.

4. Clean Up Before Upgrading

Problems encountered in your current version can hinder the upgrading process. Large volumes of data can burden the performance of site collections and databases. It would be best if you considered eliminating unnecessary data and resolving all problems before you start upgrading.

5. Backup The Farm

It would help if you backed up your current version's server before you start upgrading to the new environment. You should also include the customizations you deploy in the backup. Testing the backups is necessary to ensure you don't lose any of your data in case of a hardware failure.

6. Improve Your Environment

You should optimize your current version for any restrictions or limits from your governance or business. The environment you are upgrading to may also have conditions that may not be compatible with your current environment—optimizing your current version to reduce errors when upgrading and prevent broken sites or lists after the process is essential.

7. Set Your Databases To Read Only

Setting your original databases to read-only can enable your users to access the data while you upgrade. You may be expecting a long upgrading process which can inconvenience your users. The read-only mode will help your users view files and documents but cannot make any changes to them, such as editing, sharing, and commenting.

8. Review Upgrade Status, Upgrade Logs, And Upgraded Sites

You must assess the upgrade status page and logs to identify potential issues that may have arisen during the upgrade. After that, review the upgraded sites. The upgrade logs show any errors or warnings experienced during the upgrade, while the upgrade status page gives feedback on the update's progress. Confirm all the sites and test each before you finalize the upgrade process.

How to Upgrade a SharePoint 

A Sharepoint upgrade can be pretty challenging, especially for beginners. It may look technical, but it can be done effectively with the correct procedure, avoiding significant problems such as data loss. The table below highlights the steps involved in upgrading.

Conclusion

You'll realize you've missed many features after upgrading your Sharepoint. The new functionalities will save you money and increase your Sharepoint's user adoption. An upgraded Sharepoint will protect your data from hackers and cyber threats. Following Sharepoint's best practices ensures your upgrade process is smooth and effective. You can reach Guru Solutions for great SharePoint Upgrade services.